Media outlets access enhanced multi-platform content at no charge, with alerts when we have new content on issues or from regions you may select. Once we receive the filled out form below, you'll receive a message with the passcode/s. Welcome!

*These fields are required

*Media Outlet name

*Media Outlet City/State

Contact name

Contact phone

*Email address or fax #

*Media Outlet type

Additional (beyond the state you are located in) content that you would like to receive

Newscasts

PNS Daily Newscast - March 21, 2019

The nation’s acting Defense Secretary is under investigation for promoting Boeing, his former employer. Also on the Thursday rundown: The Trump administration’s spending blueprint being called a “bully budget.” Plus, a call for the feds to protect consumers from abusive lenders.

The new rules require payday lenders to start verifying a borrower's ability to repay the loan before rolling it over into a new loan. Marceline White, executive director of the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, said Maryland has been taking extra steps to protect consumers for three decades, but there have been attempts to scrap those rules.

"In Maryland, last session during the General Assembly, we had to fight off another attempt by payday lenders to exploit a loophole in our law,” White said. “And they were able to do that and charge 300 to 400 percent loans."

The General Assembly shot that attempt down, and Maryland's cap on payday loans remains at 33 percent. White called attempts by the payday loan industry to exploit hard-working families across the country every year "never ending."

White said she applauds the decision by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because she said other states have not taken steps to protect consumers.

"The CFPB cannot separate caps. They're not allowed to, but now any kind of lender will have to prove that somebody can pay back a 1,000 percent loan and meet all their other financial obligations,” she said. "We strongly believe that they will fail that test. "

According to White, conservatives in Congress are expected to try to repeal the new rule using the Congressional Review Act before it even goes into effect. And in 2018, President Trump will get the chance to nominate a new head of the CFPB. Its current director, Richard Cordray, is a holdover from the Obama administration.